


Hand to Hold

by badwolfrun



Series: Nick/Greg Ficlets [3]
Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Comfort, Ficlet, M/M, Post-Grave Danger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 22:09:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17455202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/badwolfrun
Summary: Nick has a nightmare, Greg finds him under the bed.





	Hand to Hold

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote on tumblr after being prompted by an anon. Short and sweet.

A dreamless sleep was interrupted by a loud thud, though he wasn’t aware that he woke up from the sound of his partner falling onto the floor. His eyes fluttered open slowly, adjusting to the darkness. Even though he was completely wrapped in a blanket, he felt cold. Empty. He was disoriented at first, shocked to find that he was not in his own bed, staring at a picture of a Texan landscape instead of a poster of his favorite rock band. He rolled over to see if Nick was still beside him, but all he saw was the other half of the blanket hanging off of the bed. His eyes darted to the bathroom door, which was cracked open slightly. 

 _Must be taking a leak_ , he thought to himself, before shutting his eyes again. He allowed his body to melt back into the soft pillow, the soft sheets, the soft blanket. Any minute now, Nick would come back and grab a hold of Greg from behind, he would rest his head on Greg’s shoulder, Greg would grab onto Nick’s hand, and they would fall back asleep. 

His internal clock told him it had been five minutes, and Nick was still not back from the bathroom. 

“Nick?” he called out in a low voice. “Did you fall in or something?”

As if on cue, the bed suddenly rose beneath Greg, then fell back down again. It rose again, then fell again. It wasn’t the movement of someone falling back onto the bed, but as if someone was pushing the bed from underneath…

The earthquake in the bed was accompanied by soft whimpers, cries that made the hair on the back of Greg’s neck stand up. Greg flung the blankets off of him and nearly fell out of the bed himself as he crouched down the floor, peering into the space that most people don’t think about, though this job has trained him to look under there anyway. 

Nick was under the bed, one hand was pressed against the springs holding the mattress in place. The other hand was clutching an invisible rod, unbeknownst to Greg, it was the source of light in his dreams. His exposed body was shivering, covered in goosebumps. 

Greg didn’t quite know what to do or say at first, Nick had mentioned to him that he’s had nightmares, sometimes more than once a night. He never mentioned what they were about, but Greg could hazard a guess. 

“Hey, buddy…It’s okay, I got you,” he began to whisper quietly. He remembers Papa Olaf telling a younger Greg about his grandmother’s sleepwalking, how it was always best to wake her up gently, softly, even if she was in great distress. 

Nick’s hand seemed to drop the invisible object, and was now opening, trembling, reaching. Greg reached out for it, their fingers intertwining. Nick’s fingers felt sweaty, but his skin was cold.

“I got you,” Greg kept whispering, and Nick’s whimpering started to fade, he began to take a few deep breaths.

“G-Greg?” he gulped. 

“Yeah, Nicky, I’m right here.”

“Wh-Where am I?”

“You’re…under your bed.”

“Oh.” He sniffled, his other hand wiping the tears from his eyes. Silence between the two for a few moments, Nick was still holding his hand, but his eyes avoided Greg’s. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” Nick sighed, he sounded flat, defeated. 

More silence, and Nick finally looked at Greg, his eyes glimmering in the light flooding into the bedroom from the bathroom. It didn’t take Greg long to realize the light seemed to act as spotlight directly at Nick’s feet, though it was not as intense as the one used in the source of Nick’s sleeping troubles.

“Do you want to get back in bed?”

Nick nodded, and began to scoot out from under the bed. Greg helped him stand up, laid him down in the bed. He closed the door to the bathroom before hopping back into bed. Nick was facing the wall, his body seemed to have tensed up again. Greg put his arms around Nick’s waist, whispering into Nick’s ear softly.  He whispered anything and everything, how much he admires Nick, how much he respects and looks up to him, how proud he is of him. 

The pressure in Nick’s body began to release, and Nick grabbed onto Greg’s hand as he whispered one final comfort into Nick’s ear before they each parted back into their separate dreamworlds. Words of comfort that have been sitting on the edge of Greg’s tongue for days, for months, for years, even. He was waiting for a moment like this, a moment where he felt truly bonded with his partner to share these words, these thoughts, these feelings. 

“I love you, Nick Stokes.”

Nick slowly brought Greg’s hand towards his mouth, his lips pressing against Greg’s skin, sending a shiver down Greg’s body that made him feel that he was truly at home.

“I love you, too, Greg Sanders.”


End file.
